For Marvin Birnbaum alternately populating his Stone Age clan
to the maximum and then starving it along with using his resources
to the utmost was the strategy that worked for him. Some critics
would say that starving your people is not ethical, but this
is a game where the people are actually just pieces of wood on
a board. Numerous players tried this strategy with varying degrees
of success (eight winners, seven seconds, seven thirds, and four
fourths). At least one player tried this in 19 of the 52 games
played). At the end of the game Marvin was at 91 on the scoring
track, and his closest competitor Rodney Bacigalupo was at 60.
He then garnered 40 more points for four Shamans with his population
of 10, while Rodney narrowed the gap somewhat with 57 points
for his Hut Builders, Tool Makers, Farmers, Shamans, and number
of unused resources.

The tournament remained very well attended in its second year.
All games were 4-player primarily because potential players had
to be turned away due to a lack of available games - keeping
attendance in mutiples of four to match the available games on
hand.

Now, for those who like statistics here are some interesting
ones. In calculating where the winners got the most points vs.
second, third and fourth place: the winners got the smallest
percentage of their points from buildings (50% vs 56, 59, and
60% for second, third, and fourth place respectively) and they
also earned the smallest percentage from the unused resources
(1.5% vs 2.5, 3.0, and 5.5%). After the points from the huts,
the winners got most points from green cards (11.72% vs 12.01,
12.29, and 8.68%), shamans (11.25% vs 8.36, 7.77 and 4.79%),
tool makers (10.67% vs 6.44, 6.32, and 8.91%), hut builders (7.22%
vs 8.61, 7.26, and 6.40%) and farmers (7.19% vs 5.99, 4.08, and
5.44%). The average total points of the winners was 165.67; second
place: 143.58; third: 176.27; fourth: 103.65.

Point Source

Winners

Second Place

Third Place

Fourth Place

Buildings

50%

56%

59%

60%

Unused Resources

1.5%

2.5%

3.0%

5.5%

Green Cards

11.72%

12.01%

12.29%

8.68%

Shamans

11.25%

8.36%

7.77%

4.79%

Tool Makers

10.67%

6.44%

6.32%

8.91%

Hut Builders

7.22%

8.61%

7.26%

6.40%

Farmers

7.19%

5.99%

4.08%

5.44%

Average Total

165.67

143.58

126.27

103.65

The highest winning score was 266, the lowest was 105. The
largest point spread between first and fourth was 136, and the
smallest was 22. We did tie-breakers by the percentage of your
score against the table's total score. The highest percentage
was 36%; the lowest was 14%; the biggest gap in percentages was
34% and the lowest was 4.28% (the scores in that game were: 163,
160, 147, 137).

Board #13 occupies Kathy Stroh, Eric
Freeman and Alfred Smith.

GM Rodney Bacigliao oversees his finalists.

On-Line Tournament

The first online Stone Age event featured 23 players
broken down into five groups for two-player pool play. Each player
had a minimum of three games logged to create a 12-player round
robin tournament. Players were seeded based on pool records.
There were five players who had perfect pool records. Eric Freeman
led with a 4-0 slate, followed by Raphael Lehhrer, Kevin Wojtaszczyk,
Greg Thatcher, and Max Jamelli each at 3-0. Tied records were
seeded based on the average points scored. Eric's 4-0 record
earned him the #1 seed even though Lehrer had the highest points
average of 285.

The tournament was not decided by chalk though - only one
higher seeded player won an opening round game, and only two
of those with first round byes won their way into the semis.
The best two-of-three Final match came down to top seed Eric
Freeman and sixth seeded Stefan Mecay. Freeman suffered his first
loss of the event as Mecay was able to secure cards and buildings
late to turn a two-point advantage late into a convincing 253-195
win. Freeman bounced back in Game 2 with a 234-215 victory to
force a decisive Game 3. There, Freeman was able to secure several
multi-resource huts including a very fortuitous 1-7 hut to outscore
Mecay late and earn a hard fought 214-201 victory to claim the
title.